Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-32590

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has carried out of the blended learning that took place in spring 2020, and whether this included an analysis of any discrepancies between schools in the provision of study materials and the extent of teachers’ marking of pupils’ work.

During the course of Term 4 2019-20, Education Scotland gathered a range of evidence on the approach to remote learning being taken across local authority areas. This work looked at the use of the Glow platform, use of live/synchronised learning by teachers and use of websites to share information. Education Scotland's analysis indicated that in May 2020, over 430,000 unique users accessed Glow, almost double the number of users from the same period in 2019. In the same month, those users accessed Glow 11.4m times, around 4 times the usage of the same period in 2019.

Further qualitative evidence is being gathered via Education Scotland's "What Scotland Learned" initiative. This will include the sharing of examples of remote learning during the period of Scotland-wide school closures in Spring 2020.

Education Scotland will continue to engage with local authorities and schools in order to monitor the approach to remote learning. The Covid Education Recovery Group will fulfil a further role in helping to work across organisational and structural boundaries, providing a forum for open discussion about what is working and where improvement is needed.

Detailed data on teachers' marking and assessment of pupils' work is not gathered at national level.

Question reference: S5W-32588

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place for extra support for pupils to respond to any new school closures because of COVID-19 and catch up on lost class time.

Responsibility for arranging remote learning in the event of school closures, instances where pupils need to self-isolate or where pupils need further support to catch up on learning, rests with individual schools and local authorities. This is set out in the Scottish Government's Coronavirus recovery guidance for schools.

In order to broaden the options available to schools, Education Scotland is working with local government via the national e-learning partnership to extend the provision of e-learning options across the Broad General Education and Senior Phase. Further information about the national e-learning partnership is available at:

To improve access to digital devices, the Scottish Government is investing £25m to provide around 70,000 devices and 18,000 connectivity solutions for disadvantaged children and young people.

To expand the options available to schools - including non digital options - Education Scotland launched its "Scotland Learns" initiative. This provides resources to schools, newsletters to teachers and parents and learning activities covering the key themes of literacy & English, numeracy & mathematics and health & wellbeing.

Question reference: S5W-32601

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak, also broken down by how many (a) have had to temporarily close and (b) school weeks have been lost.

Public Heath Scotland has been engaging in a preliminary review of a sample of COVID-19 incidents in schools. The work is in its early stages and much more work needs to be done to build on the preliminary analysis and confirm the findings. However, the Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to keep schools safe, open and welcoming. In the event of any localised closures due to COVID-19, school reopening guidance makes clear that local authorities and schools should have robust contingency plans in place to support remote learning.

Question reference: S5O-04728

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what barriers are preventing it from introducing the new Scottish Child Payment for all 16-year-olds and under in 2021.

We are introducing the Scottish Child Payment early for under 6s in recognition of the fact that almost 60% of children in poverty are in households where the youngest child is under 6.

We were able to introduce this payment earlier because it builds on the existing infrastructure for our Best Start Grant payments. I am pleased that applications will open next week with first payments beginning from end February 2021.

To make payments to those over 6, we need access to data from both the DWP and HMRC to verify parental responsibility. DWP have so far declined to provide us with the relevant data for 6-16s, and are still considering what can be made available to us and in what timescales.

Question reference: S5W-32608

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which species of wild birds are covered under the provisions of the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 regulating wildlife offences that involve the killing and injuring of wild birds.

Question reference: S5W-32587

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils (a) have tested positive for and (b) are self-isolating from COVID-19 following an outbreak at their school.

The latest information on the number of school pupils who are not in school due to a Covid-19 related sickness (this is pupils who have either been displaying symptoms of Covid-19 or have tested positive for Covid-19) can be found here:

This link also contains information on the number of school pupils not in school because they are self isolating due to Covid-19 related reasons. It is not possible to determine whether these are as a result of an outbreak at their school or due to other contact with people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

Useful information from Public Health Scotland can also be found on the weekly Infographic, published here. This includes information on positive tests by age group.

Question reference: S5W-31704

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported financial problems facing the sector, whether it will provide details of what support it is offering to the coach industry.

Question reference: S5W-31409

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its response to the Werritty Review, which examined the effects of grouse moor management on wildlife and the countryside.

Question reference: S5O-04515

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with SMEs to pursue sustainable and ethical economic growth.

Question reference: S5O-04483

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact of COVID-19 has been on the availability of workers in the rural economy and tourism sectors.